This photograph taken on July 27, 2026 shows Taliban Director of Mines in Badakhshan, Abdul Matin Rahimzai speaking during an interview with AFP at his office in Fayzabad, in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province. In Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP via Getty Images)